Quick missive from an off-line life

Highway 163 through Monument Valley - a celebrated favorite! Photo by Anne Minard

“Off-line” is a bit extreme, I suppose. But gone are the heady days of obsessing over NASA’s Twitter feeds, habitually refreshing Google Reader and blogging every single day. Since the 2009-2010 Ted Scripps Fellowship, I’ve spent a lot less time on the Internet and more time engaged in the non-digital world. I’ve been writing for a few print magazines, teaching students who have inspired me in a journalism class at CU Boulder, visiting Native American tribes on the Colorado Plateau for a research and writing project, and enjoying loads of amazing scenery along the way. Many of the places I’ve been frequenting lack wireless Internet. Still, it bothers me to log onto my own website and see an outdated post from the first few days of the oil spill in the Gulf.

A freelancer’s life is always changing, and another transition is on the way. Soon, the project in the Southwest will end and I’ll be traveling a lot less. The semester at CU Boulder will come to a close. And I’ll be back to a “normal” freelancer’s life, meeting deadlines and keeping up the hunt for a fresh stream of story ideas. That means I’ll likely be here more, surfing the web for ideas, publishing more stories online as well as in the glossies, and breathing new life into my online presence.

Kudos and many thanks to David Herbold of Flagstaff, who recently reinvigorated the site with fresh new colors. It’s good to be back!